Rob Brush's invention takes the moisture out of the asphalt during a trial run this season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY

FORT WORTH  Rob Brush is hoping one of the most dismal weekends in NASCAR history might have spawned a bright idea.

At Michigan International Speedway in August 2007, Brush watched jet dryers circle the track for two days as the Sprint Cup race was delayed from Sunday until Tuesday.

"I was sitting there thinking, 'There's got to be a better way to dry this place,' " said the Kingsville, Ontario, native, who has attended races at MIS for nearly 20 years.

After six months of research and a year of development, Brush believes he has a better alternative. The project manager for a steel fabrication company in Canada has designed a track dryer that travels about twice the speed as the current jet dryers used at NASCAR tracks.

Rather than just blow hot air on the track as the jet driers do, Brush's vehicle also uses a vacuum to suck up water akin to a Shop-Vac.

"With eight of these units at Daytona International Speedway, we could dry the track in under an hour," Brush said, estimating he could cut the current drying time in half.

Brush has built a prototype that was given a successful trial run by NASCAR when a shower followed Sprint Cup qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway two months ago. Brush is expecting to meet with NASCAR officials in Daytona Beach, Fla., in two weeks before bringing the prototype dryer to the season finale at Homestead, Fla. The invention could be a boon for NASCAR, which has been plagued by rain this year (three Cup races were delayed a day and three were shortened by bad weather).

The dryer also would fit with NASCAR's green initiatives because it runs on propane. Brush estimates it would burn less than 500 gallons to dry Daytona vs. 3,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Brush has attended several races over the past two seasons, taking nearly 4,000 photos in researching the dryer.

"I'm the only fan in the stands wishing for rain," Brush said with a laugh.

Carrying on:Toyota Racing Development president Lee White said the company's NASCAR program wouldn't benefit monetarily from the demise of its Formula One team. Toyota decided to shutter its F1 effort after reportedly spending $300-500 million annually in the series.

"We're still on very tight budget restrictions as we have been for the last year and a half and are continuing to be for the foreseeable future," White said.

The termination of the F1 program actually could have a negative impact on TRD, which had shared projects with its headquarters in Cologne, Germany.

"Given our open-wheel experience, we had a lot of friends there, people who've been with us through IndyCar and IRL and even NASCAR who were on assignment with the F1 program," White said. "We had a fantastic relationship on the technical (and) engineering side with Cologne. We had even planned later this year to have one of their (F1) vehicles in our facility in North Carolina on a regular basis doing work with our engineering group.

"It's not so much that now we can capitalize on their demise as much as we're being affected by the loss of them and don't really expect to have any real benefit from them going away. They have some neat toys and don't think I won't be holding my hand up thinking if a toy is going to be available, look our way. But I think they're looking at other options before it would come to that."

Standing pat: Toyota has contracts to supply parts and engineering support to eight Cup teams. White said the manufacturer isn't pursuing deals with more but didn't rule out adding to its stable.

"That's a possibility," he said. "Any team that chose to run a Toyota product would be evaluated and then decisions would be made whether engineering support would be provided."

White said Toyota has had discussions with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, which is mulling a switch from Chevrolet, "but we have discussions with a lot of people."

Kurt Busch, who will start third, turned the 12th-fastest lap and picked up a new fan in Michael McGee. In a promotion offered by title sponsor Dickies, the Broken Bow, Okla., native will win $1 million if Busch triumphs at Texas.

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